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When I was an undergraduate I lived on probably $9,000 a year. It's quite do-able, you don't need phone, TV, cable, a car... these are all things that people have grown to feel entitled to. I was incredibly poor by American standards, and yet I look back on those days and realize that I was also quite happy. I was proud of being independent and not in debt, I enjoyed making meals from scratch for pennies, I used public transportation or walked everywhere, bought my clothes at the local thrift store... and still had enough money to make sure my cats had their inoculations and were spayed! But nobody has any pride anymore, it seems like. The hand is always out.

The lady makes some valid points. Almost these exact thoughts occured to me over lunch. Our standard of living is unbelievably high. After living overseas, even for the short time I did, that became obvious.

Right now, some of us (like me) are at the bottom end of the wage scale for any number of reasons. Personally, I've switched "careers" so many times, I haven't been able to build a salary base. But on the other hand, my real love (and where my best talents lie) is a field that doesn't pay much. Market wise it isn't valuable. That's fine with me, though. I essentially work two jobs - one to pay for the other.

Thank God for clearance racks.